Va.'s Cantor fights for jet engine opposed by the Pentagon

Peter Galuszka, who blogs at Bacon's Rebellion, takes note of the fight by House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), normally a critic of government spending, to keep some $485 million in a $567 billion defense appropriation bill to help provide the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter with an alternative engine that the Pentagon doesn't want. The House voted to keep the money in the budget, and the matter is now up to the Senate.

According to Galuszka, Lockheed-Martin, maker of the fighter that will replace the F-15, F-18 and F-16, has selected Pratt & Whitney (P&W) to make the engine to power the new aircraft. P&W, however, doesn't have big operations in Virginia, but Rolls-Royce North America does, and it wants to make an alternative engine for the F-35 with partner General Electric.